Bad Rap: Pro Athletes Are Not So Bad
Professional athletes bring about an aura of disgust to many American citizens. The "greedy", "overpaid" "criminals" that we call athletes sicken many upper class individuals. Whenever a professional athlete signs a multi-million dollar deal, America always hears about it. For example, Alex Rodriguez recently signed the largest contract in pro sports history with the Texas Rangers: $250,000,000.00 over a ten-year period. That is equal to a quarter of a billion dollars. Many people in the media became outraged that a single individual agreed to accept this huge amount of money. An interview with Rodriguez's agent on the CBS news program, 60 Minutes, painted the picture that Alex Rodriguez is a greedy person who refused to be paid anything less than the money he was eventually given. When a labor dispute arises, such as Major League Baseball's recent one, the media almost always sides with the owners against the players. They put the blame on the players for being selfish by signing ridiculous contract offers and having absurd demands. When there is a work stoppage, and the fans go crazy, the players receive all of the criticism. The media is forever attacking professional athletes who get mixed up with the law. The O
If an athlete only has earning potential for four years and he is performing a task that few individuals could perform at the level that he does, he should get paid a large sum of money during that period. When the season starts, they are often on the road where they are away from their families. Becoming a professional in anything takes a lot of practice. However, if this is the case, why aren't movie starts looked upon with the same sort of disdain? I do not know, but I do know that professional athletes are not as bad as the media projects them. Young adults, many in their early to mid-twenties are thrust into the national media spotlight at this early age and forced to be model citizens. There is even suspicion that the police tried to get involved by planting evidence to frame the ex-football star. The next time someone says that pro athletes are overpaid, take note that the average career of a professional athlete is only four years. Just about any American would accept a quarter of a billion dollars if someone was willing to pay it to them. Guilty or innocent, the athlete more often than not seems to be portrayed as guilty before the facts of the case are even sorted out. Most pro athletes have never been convicted of or even been a suspect in a crime of any sort, so those types of generalizations are based on the perceived mistakes of a few individuals, and are therefore ignorant and without warrant. However, if in any way, they screw up, or are suspected of doing something that does not coincide with the rest of society they are ostracized by the media and made out to be inhumane. His situation just comes to mind first because his case was the most popular.
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